Pakistan Bombings Kill 15

Biggest military leak in history underscores grim realities

(NEWSER) - Wikileaks has unveiled 92,000 secret documents about the Afghan war, which, in the New York Times ' words, "illustrate in mosaic detail why ... the Taliban are stronger than at any time since 2001." Don't have time to scan through 92,000 documents? Here are what appear to be the top revelations:

1. The Army Delta Force runs a top-secret group of commandos called Task Force 373, charged with assassinating Taliban leaders. Some of their raids have resulted in civilian casualties; in one case, seven children were killed by a rocket.
2. The Taliban has employed heat-seeking anti-aircraft rockets, of the same kind the US gave the mujahedeen during the Soviet occupation.
3. The US covered up one attack made with one of those rockets, saying it had been downed by conventional weaponry.

Terrorist threat leads to decision that could complicate war effort

(NEWSER) - The CIA’s top spy in Pakistan left the country yesterday, after a lawsuit blew his cover and terrorists threatened to kill him. The lawsuit, filed earlier this month, accused the Islamabad station chief by name of ordering missile strikes that killed civilians. That name has been oft-repeated by Pakistani media, and featured prominently on protest signs in the capital. The lawyer in the case says he learned the name from a local journalist. More»

Two US strikes reportedly kill 18 today

(NEWSER) - A Reuters report that two US drone strikes killed 18 people in Pakistan today could become a common refrain: The CIA has significantly increased its drone attacks in the country over the last month, thanks to a secret diversion of weapons from the US military in Afghanistan, according to the Wall Street Journal . The move comes as tensions with Pakistan are at a dangerous high. More»

Naive CIA got played: sources

(NEWSER) - In an embarrassing development for the CIA, it looks like the capture last January of Taliban commander Abdul Ghani Baradar was anything but the joint US-Pakistani victory against terrorism it was presented as at the time. In fact, Pakistan captured Baradar to undermine secret peace talks between the Taliban and the Karzai government—and thus to preserve its role as regional power broker, writes Dexter Filkins for the New York Times . More»

Panetta says agency hasn't had intelligence on him in years

(NEWSER) - Don’t expect the CIA to catch Osama bin Laden any time soon; Leon Panetta yesterday admitted that his agency hasn’t had any precise intelligence on bin Laden’s whereabouts since “the early 2000s.” The agency believes he’s in Pakistan’s tribal region, but “he is, as is obvious, in very deep hiding," he told ABC News . More»